• 1 Post
  • 145 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
Cake day: September 15th, 2022
  • Aria@lemmygrad.mltoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Microsoft admits Windows 11 has a GDID tracker with no off switch, first documented publicly in an FBI hacker complaint
    2·
    5 days ago

    There isn’t a 1-step perfect solution as far as I know. You can use Tor in combination with other technologies, and it’ll likely help you avoid a lot of surveillance, just not specifically the NSA. (Also keep in mind anyone/commercial actors can run Tor nodes with the intention of spying on Tor users. You need a lot of nodes to catch anyone, but I wouldn’t assume it never happens).

    The main thing is to own your software and hardware, and disconnect what you don’t own from the internet. If you can’t meet those conditions, then it’s impossible no matter how vigilant and knowledgable you are.

    My recommendations is to play your computer games on an offline computer via GOG purchases, or if you want Steam games, then just give up on securing that device. Have two networks. Have your secure computers for your general online tasks and chatting, and have the unsecure computer for interacting with DRM and services that lose a lot of functionality if the surveillance vectors are blocked.

    Bad attempts at hardening often don’t work, and have the adverse effect of making you more unique for fingerprinting. It might be worth foregoing some hardening advice if you can think of workarounds the hostile actor might use, which you don’t know how to counter-act.

  • Aria@lemmygrad.mltoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Microsoft admits Windows 11 has a GDID tracker with no off switch, first documented publicly in an FBI hacker complaint
    3·
    5 days ago

    The security of Tor is built on the assumption that one actor owning a majority of the nodes is improbable to the point of being written off as a non-concern. The tool has always been run and maintained by the USA government. When they opened access to the public, they owned the majority of the nodes, and with the amount of compute available to the NSA (look up the size of their official data-centres, add in their hacked bot-farms), it’s almost certain they still do. If it wasn’t their plan to always have supremacy, they aren’t doing their job. The purpose of Tor is to hide traffic from USA’s enemies. A few tens of thousands of private users is just reducing their power bill and painting targets on their own backs, not successfully hiding from the NSA.

  • Aria@lemmygrad.mltoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Microsoft admits Windows 11 has a GDID tracker with no off switch, first documented publicly in an FBI hacker complaint
    32·
    6 days ago

    Smug Reddit-level takes left and right in this thread. The kid successfully hacked a website, you can assume he knows what he’s doing better than you and followed all the best practices short of not using Windows. They didn’t get his account from his Edge credential store. He probably used some Firefox-derivative. Tor browser if he was stupid. He probably “hardened” Windows every way he could think of, again, short of disconnecting from the internet. Windows simply does a good job of spying on you, that’s all it is.

    There are even people in the thread recommending running Windows games on Linux as a way to avoid this surveillance. If you put Microsoft Flight Sim on your Linux computer, then that’s now a Windows computer. Microsoft owns that computer, same as the Windows one. If you install Nvidia drivers, Nvidia owns that computer, and the USA can ask Nvidia for your accounts and whereabouts instead of Microsoft. If you put Steam on your Linux computer, that’s now Steam’s computer and the USA can ask Steam.

    There is no “safe” amount of malware.

  • Aria@lemmygrad.mltoWorld News@lemmy.ml•Iran to close Strait of Hormuz, strike twice as many targets in response to any US attack
    5·
    9 days ago

    Iran has issued a firm warning that it will not back down from its management of the Strait of Hormuz and is prepared to fight to maintain control over the strategic waterway, an informed security source told Press TV on Wednesday.

    The source revealed that developments over the past 48 hours have solidified Tehran’s resolve, with a new military and strategic doctrine now in place.

    According to the source, Iran’s updated strategy dictates that in the event of any fresh attack on Iranian soil or interests, the Islamic Republic will respond with overwhelming force.

    The source elaborated on Iran’s new retaliatory framework, stating that following any strike against Iran, two immediate actions will be taken: first, the Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed to all maritime traffic; and second, Iran will strike enemy targets at a ratio of at least two to one, meaning that for every Iranian target hit, at least two enemy targets will be struck in return.

    “The memorandum of understanding signed on this matter clearly states that Iran will reopen the Strait in accordance with its own arrangements. Therefore, Iran will not permit the establishment of any new route outside the framework of its own arrangements,” the source said.

    The source also addressed recent threats made by US President Donald Trump, delivering a blunt message to Washington.

    "Any threat will receive a powerful response. Iran does not distinguish between the United States and its partners in the region,” the source told Press TV.

    “Trump will gain nothing from these recent threats, but he will certainly lose both the Strait of Hormuz and the negotiations over a final agreement. The choice is now his."

    The warning comes amid rising tensions in the Persian Gulf region, after the US military carried out a fresh round of illegal and unprovoked strikes against Iran’s coastal areas early on Wednesday.

    US launched military strikes on a number of coastal bases and non-military stations in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province and Mahshahr, which openly violated the ceasefire.

    In response, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) struck 85 US military targets in Bahrain and Kuwait with missiles and drones in an initial response to the American aggression.

    The IRGC said the strikes hit facilities at Port Salman, the US Fifth Fleet’s area in Bahrain, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. It also announced the downing of an MQ-9 drone, saying the aircraft attempted to interfere with the operation before it was shot down.

    In a statement earlier on Wednesday, Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said any source of support for the “aggressor US army” will be considered a legitimate target for Iranian armed forces.

    “The source of any support for the aggressor US army to violate the sovereignty and territory of Islamic Iran will be a legitimate target for the armed forces,” the top military command center warned.

    It said that the only safe route for commercial ships and oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz is the path designated by Iran, and that Tehran will not allow any interference in the management of the Strait.

    Iranian parliament speaker and lead negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also slammed the US for committing major violations of the Iran-US memorandum of understanding (MoU), stressing that Washington’s “era of bullying and extortion” is over.

    “Major MoU violations by the US: [1.] Violating Iranian adjustments in the Strait,
    [2.] Reinstating oil sanctions,
    [3.] Attacks on southern Iran,
    [4.] Continued Zionist aggression on Lebanon,” he said.

    “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold.”

    Actalis, who are Italian, but probably acting on orders from the USA in this case, has revoked the certificate. (Could also be the site got hacked and Actalis is doing their job correctly, but I subscribe to the censorship theory personally).

    You can use wget to download the site, or curl if you just want the text. There’s also presstv.co.uk which works as a mirror.

  • Aria@lemmygrad.mltoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•Am I crazy not to trust Chinese developed games ?
    9·
    3 months ago

    Steam used to upload your whole resolver cache to Valve (So they could sidestep things not showing up in history when you use private-browsing). And they’re mandated to share everything they have on you with the NSA. So if you’re coming at this from a “I’ll trust Steam but not Wukong” angle, then yes, you are unreasonable. If you’re coming at this from a “All these private Chinese companies have insane privacy policies and send me hundreds of cookies, I’m not trusting anyone they work with!” angle then that’s completely reasonable. Closed source software is never safe, and capitalism doesn’t reward treating your customers well.

  • Aria@lemmygrad.mltoMemes@lemmy.ml•Something something EvIL DiCtAtorShip! something
    22·
    3 months ago

    Do you think OP is presenting this street, completely full with people, as an example of normal pedestrian traffic? This is the inauguration. Nobody lives in these flats. The people on the street are having a party, following a plan by the party organisers, and then at the end they will move in to their new flats.

    Most likely the party organisers have made deliberate choices to discourage people attending from watching from behind the stage, on account of how stages work.

  • Aria@lemmygrad.mltoMemes@lemmy.ml•nK bAd!!!
    30·
    3 months ago

    How can you say North Korea is good? Don’t you know they have to push their trains to work? You even get executed if you have the same haircut or a different haircut than WPK’s General Secretary. They’re so evil that they’ll execute people with a 76mm cannon and then sew the mist back together and medically resurrect the person and re-execute them and then they’re forced to go back to work afterwards.